Ive always wondered why the artists draw anime characters the way they do. The vast majority of Anime characters lack asian features. What I find even more silly is how sometimes they will have some characters in a series that look more asian yet its always some kind of sidekick character and never the protagonist. The only exception that I can think of off the top of my head to this is Hell girl.

Maybe they're obsessed with the "western look" like some westerners are obsessed with the "Asian look". Everybody has their favorite flavor, y'know, and ppl usually want the opposite of what they are. Straight hair ppl want curly, and vice versa for one.

I'm not Asian, but I really like the way they look above all other looks....I don't know why.

Maybe they're obsessed with the "western look" like some westerners are obsessed with the "Asian look". Everybody has their favorite flavor, y'know, and ppl usually want the opposite of what they are. Straight hair ppl want curly, and vice versa for one.

I'm not Asian, but I really like the way they look above all other looks....I don't know why.

Maybe they're obsessed with the "western look" like some westerners are obsessed with the "Asian look". Everybody has their favorite flavor, y'know, and ppl usually want the opposite of what they are. Straight hair ppl want curly, and vice versa for one.

I'm not Asian, but I really like the way they look above all other looks....I don't know why.

Hmm.... Ya think so...?

Welp! There goes my lunch...

Aside from that, I have taken the liberty to goole that question, there are quite a few interesting theories about this out there.

Maybe they're obsessed with the "western look" like some westerners are obsessed with the "Asian look". Everybody has their favorite flavor, y'know, and ppl usually want the opposite of what they are. Straight hair ppl want curly, and vice versa for one.

I'm not Asian, but I really like the way they look above all other looks....I don't know why.

Hmm.... Ya think so...?

Welp! There goes my lunch...

Aside from that, I have taken the liberty to goole that question, there are quite a few interesting theories about this out there.

Yes, there are. There was thread about this topic here on Crunchyroll somewhere, but using the search feature I can't find it :/

To actually attempt to answer the OP's question: It's just how the artists/animators draw them, in their minds the characters are still Asian (to be more specific, Japanese, unless stated otherwise). It could also be to show distinction - like how sometimes in a show how they draw Westerners (who usually look notably different) compared to other characters.

There was a pretty great dude a few years ago from Japan who wrote an essay about how that's completely wrong. Anime characters are viewed as being Japanese to the Japanese. They don't appear western to them, they appear Japanese, they appear western to us because we're seeing in them reflections of ourselves.

There was a pretty great dude a few years ago from Japan who wrote an essay about how that's completely wrong. Anime characters are viewed as being Japanese to the Japanese. They don't appear western to them, they appear Japanese, they appear western to us because we're seeing in them reflections of ourselves.

A white person will probably see it as white, a japanese as japanese, etc. Because I'm American, I default to thinking of the person in the picture as similar to me. A japanese will probably see it as japanese. To make it a girl, I add a dress. If I want to make the person look american to me the job is already done. If I want it to look japanese, then I add "japanese" features. If I'm japanese, and I want to make the picture look japanese, then it's already done -- it looks like a "japanese" person to me. However if I want to draw an american, then I'll add blonde hair, or a hamburger, or whatever -- you'll see this in anime, and if you notice, chinese in anime are typically depicted with the slanted eyes, because to the Japanese, Chinese have slanted eyes, while theirs are "normal." Most people think of themselves as normal, and only include the stereotypical features when drawing characters that are unlike themselves.

Kotaku explains it much better than I can though, I just thought I'd give a TL:DR.